The present invention relates to a new series of phenylalkanoic acid derivatives, which have been found to have anti-inflammatory and analgesic activities and some of which have also been found to have immuno-regulatory activity. The invention also provides methods of using these compounds.
Mild analgesic and anti-inflammatory agents are amongst the most commonly used of drugs. Most such drugs in common use have side effects which may be distressing or even dangerous to a small percentage of the population--even though the number of people so afflicted may be statistically insignificant, it is better for such persons to employ a different analgesic or anti-inflammatory drug, whose side effects may not be distressing or dangerous to them, rather than to continue with the original drug. There is, therefore, a continuing need for new analgesic and anti-inflammatory drugs, to broaden the choice available to the consumer.
The known mild analgesic and anti-inflammatory agents fall into a number of recognised chemical classes; one such class consists of phenylalkanoic acid derivatives, which mainly vary in accordance with the nature of the substituents on the phenyl group. A series of compounds within this class is disclosed, for example, in British Patent Specification No. 2,113,214 and another such series is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,400,534.